Does the Queen take after mum?

Happy birthday, ma'am. The Queen has been celebrating her 88th birthday this week and whether you're a Royalist or not, you have to take your hat off to a woman of that age with a workload and responsibility of that enormity.

Happy birthday, ma'am. The Queen has been celebrating her 88th birthday this week and whether you're a Royalist or not, you have to take your hat off to a woman of that age with a workload and responsibility of that enormity.

While most of us imagine having our feet up in our late 80s, Her Majesty is still going strong with the energy of a woman half her age.

The photographer, David Bailey, was tasked with taking an official birthday portrait and he captured a relaxed, smiling and energetic-looking monarch. Whatever the Queen Mother's secret to youth and longevity was, she seems to have passed it on.